Tag Archives:friends

For the last couple of weeks the weather has been pretty awful so we have spent our afternoons mainly playing indoors.

While we were waiting for our friend Max to come over to play, Bee dressed up like a fairy and took care of her Magic Fairy garden. It was a present for her birthday and together with Nonna, she planted the seed for the grass to grow. Although she keeps forgetting to water it (!!) the grass now is pretty high so both Leo and Bee spend their playful afternoons imagining faires coming into the little garden and hiding precious jems in the grass (or driving a car like faires normally do obviously!)

“Is anyone hiding there?”

Because they had been waiting for Max to arrive for a while, the kids started to be hungry so I thought why not have a quick snack before Max comes. Usually in the afternoon we have either pancakes or yoghurt and today we tried for the first time the new Petits Filous Magic Squares in Strawberry & Vanilla Flavour and Raspberry & Vanilla flavour.

Bee was pleasently surprised by the little square inside the pot

Happy faces all over! Leo finished the whole pot in 3 big spoons!

And even tried to get a little more from Bee’s pot

YUM YUM

When Max finally arrived obviously there was no way that Bee and Leo would have just sit there and watch Max eating his own Petit Filous so they got another one each!

Sometimes I think it’s so easy to make kids happy with the simplest things. The magic mix for us is having a lovely friend to play with, giving them a toy which builds their imagination and feeding them with a good, healthy snack. My kids can carry on playing for hours so mamma can finally have a break (and why not some Petit Filous too ;))

Finger–licking snack!

I think this video of Bee is pretty funny. Notice how she mixes up her two languages towards the end when she says “and then we are going comprare ancora (to buy more of) the same” LOL

This post is an entry for BritMums #MagicSquaresPlaydates Linky Challenge by Petits Filous

After having seen Bee crying while saying goodbye to my mom and my sister who recently left to go back to their home in Italy, I can honestly say that one of the downfalls of living abroad is seen my children getting upset every time they see someone leaving after having spent some time with us.

This time was even harder, because it wasn’t only Bee who got sad but Leo too. He has now reached an age where he can actually realise when someone is not in the house anymore. For instance the day after my mom left he was going room after room calling “Nonna” or in the car he would suddenly call her name…

It’s heart breaking…literally…

But we made a choice to live here, away from our family and friends and unfortunately we just have to, literally, live with it.

Beatrice and Leo love be surrounded by people, friends, family and they get very attached to everyone who comes to visit us from abroad.

Last month was a big month of celebrations in our house. We had both my family and my in-laws here to celebrate Leo and Bee’s birthdays. We spent time all together, we laughed, Bee got to take turns and slept in bed first with one Nonna then with the other and both my children got super spoiled with cuddles, kisses, presents. They got away with going to bed too late or eating too many sweet.

They obviously adore having family here and when it’s time to say goodbye it’s just so so hard… for all of us…

When people ask me if I’d like to go back to live in Italy I always reply that although I miss so many things about “my previous life”, now my new life is here in Scotland. Both my kids were born here and I would not have stayed here that long (In August it’ll be 14 years of me living here eeek) if it didn’t feel like home.

At the same time, I cannot help but feel nostalgic thinking that I cannot just jump on the plane every time I miss them…sometimes I happen to wonder what it would be like to go back, having Sunday lunch with the family, see friends for dinner while granparents look after the children, spend Christmas with all my cousins and uncles…

I try to see the positive in this though.

Every time we meet it’s special! Sometimes I actually feel we love our family even more now because we cherish so much the limited time we spend together that we make every minute unforgettable. And I honestly think we create amazing memories every time we are together!

One of the best things it’s the countdown for their arrival day… and when we wake up and it’s almost time to go to the airport, the excitement is sky high!

Every time we go and fetch our family from the airport we take the kids and we prepare big “welcome” posters and we take balloons and hearts and flowers and when the airport doors open our hearts beat faster because we cannot wait to see our loved ones faces in between many faces. And when they finally come out usually Bee runs towards them and jumps on them! Ohh how I get sooo emotional and my heart fills with joy!!

The day after their arrival is a continuing celebration! In the morning the kids cannot wait to wake up and go and play with them , show them their toys, their draws.

When someone come to visit us we try to spend our days visiting amazing Scottish places, admire all together beautiful scenaries or have wonderful experiences like the time when we went to feed the lambs which were only few days old!

And obviously every time we are all together there is cake, lots of cake no matter the occasion! And lasagna! And pasta and more pasta! WOW, I get excited only to think about all this!

Although it’s hard to say goodbye to the people we love, I try to remember all the experiences that we share together and when I miss them I smile and feel lucky because no matter what, we are blessed to have people who love us so much.